Wedding Forum - Just added up our total wedding cost!...

I have just sat and added the total cost of our wedding up & am a little surprised by the amount!

When we first started planning we were looking to spend around £5500 total
This was before deciding to have a band which instantly put the price up by £1120 but Mum wanted to pay for this element

So, our GRAND total was actually £8518........£3000 OVER BUDGET!
Whoooops

Has anyone else discovered this or did you keep a log of all spendings and costs during the planning stages?

Indeed Sarah!
BUT we had the best day ever, it was everything we wanted plus more and we did not go without anything we truly wanted on our day.
The better news is we did not take out any loans or put anything on credit cards so we are not in debt from it either

I was a pretty savvy bride too and shopped around, it goes to show how easy it is to go over budget when the W word is used!

We've done a spreadsheet & written down the maximum were willing to spend & its working out at 10k
Hoping it will come in under that though!!

im sure im going to go over my budget as i buy stuff each month and dont tend to add it onto the final amount....ooops

I added ours up and we are way way wayyyyy over budget D: I'm hoping we can recoup the costs....somehow...lol

I have planned for £30,000.00 and so far looks like im on/under budget we will have to c when btb picks her dress and the bridesmaids dresses

i love seeing where people go with their budgets :) sometimes get a little envious of those with huge budgets but on the other hand im sooo pleased we have managed to tick rigidly to our budget we only had £2500 at first then mil2b added £500 o we had £3000 altogether and it looks like we are going to come in bang on target :) did end up having band which i hadnt originally planned but they are doing a family special so only £250! ended up with 37 adults and 13 children for the actual wedding breakfast which was a little more than first thought but still we have stayed on budget , have had great fun haggling,making and of course using bid sites and free pages!!

We budgeted 15 kelbel and went the other way were over 20.... Just hope ive over budgeted, argh

It is really interesting to hear all the different stories and budgets.
Although we did go a fair bit over, I would not change a thing and we had everything we wished for on the day

We were able to keep it low by having the ceremony & reception in one venue & I stayed there the night before, Hubby drove himself over so no car hire.
I tried 19 dresses on in total, the most expensive one was £1200 I believe but I did not pay attention to the price, just tried until I found THE ONE. The nicest surprise after finding it was to discover the price of the dress.......£399!
MOH dress came from bay & she wore her wedding shoes
BM dresses bought in the sale at mons00n £38 each (we took a chance on these, saw them, loved them, was too soon to buy. Then they were put in the sale and discontinued so bought them & prayed the girls would not grow!)
FOB (scottish so wore a kilt) FOG(had 3 other weddings this year so bought own grey suit) saved us money as only Hubby & BM for suit hire.
PB we bought trousers from J0hn L3wis then hired shirt, cravat & waistcoat for £35 each

What I am trying to say is we had everything we wanted but did not have to spend thousands to get it!

Did the same as others and set up a spreadsheet. Budgeted on major things except for dress and wedding breakfast and managed to bring it all in for £4000, including honeymoon. My dad volunteered to do the photos as he used to do wedding photography, my mum did one of the cakes, a friend did the other, choir and bells were free as we are members of both, worshipped at the bay of e for lots of the extra bits which sneakily add to budgets.

Ummm we did go over budget by approximately £4k for the big day but we managed to absorb it as my parents and FIL contributed or should I say paid for the majority of the wedding. I tried to keep costs down, saving in some areas but overspending in others xxx

Originally we budgeted for £10,000 (not including Honeymoon) but our financial situation changed so now our budget is around £25,000 (including honeymoon).

I too have a spreadsheet and based on our quotes so far we are under our budget by around £1000 (based on quotes). A few bits that we have had quotes on have been under budget such as cake, make up, hair, flowers, chair covers, suits, invites, favours and Bridesmaid gifts. A few bits have been slightly over budget such as Bridesmaid dresses (by £10) but that's because I had to order another one but I should be able to make money back on that by selling it, my wedding ring (the price kept increasing so we got it in the summer and was £75 over) and we have also gone slightly over on table decs by £23.

We should be able to make some money back though. 1 way is that our accommodation is included in the price but me & H2b are of the attitude (rightly or wrongly) that we are paying for a few drinks and all their food all day so we shouldn't have to pay for their accommodation and breakfast the next day too. Plus, the people we will be offering rooms to would be expecting to pay/find accommodation anyway. We aren't charging as much as hotels around the venue though. Basing it on £30 an adult and £25 a child which I think is quite reasonable so we will be getting £480 back there and of course when we sell our mirrors, fish bowls etc on we shall get some money back there too we hope.

Our change in financial situation has meant that we have been able to have a few extra bits we weren't originally going to have like a Photo Booth, Sweet trees, a more expensive Wedding Ring and a dream Honeymoon.

We have just under £7000 left to save but that doesn't include extra money we save on top of what we are and my Wedding pot that I put a few £3-£5 in a week.


It's an expensive business getting married at times!

Ours is around 6k with me changing dress etc x